What the Illusive Man Wants
by Writer-Supreme
Summary: What the Illusive Man wants, the Illusive Man gets. An unspoken rule among all Cerberus employes. So when I find myself inside his base and unknowingly reveal my knowledge of the future of the world he lives in, what the Illusive Man wants...is me. Self insert.
1. Chapter 1

There was a satisfying crunch as my Omni-blade hit its mark.

Before the collector pressed against me even had time to finish its dying shriek, I pulled it around and used it as a shield from the incoming gunfire.  
A few stray rounds pinged against my shields, which I ignored and leaned around the _very_ dead collector and fired back. The collectors shooting had seemed to forget that cover was, in fact, an important part of living through a firefight.

They went down almost as fast as their shields.

I pressed the well worn button on my arm and my Omni-blade disappeared, letting my improvised shield drop to the ground. I turned and saw Miranda finish the last of the collectors on her side of their floating arena by gracefully drop-kicking it off the edge. How she managed to gracefully drop-kick _anything_ I'll never know.

A loud roar drew my attention to the center of the arena. A bright red light surrounded the human-reaper as it tilted it's head back and prepared to fire the most annoying weapon I had ever encountered. That EMP... thing had already taken out my Omni-tool and my shields for the majority of the most important and dangerous fight of my life and there was no way in hell that was happening again!

"Damn it Shepard, kill that thing already!" I yelled. The red haired, soon to be savior of the galaxy twice over and self proclaimed badass turned to me and gave me a sly smirk. Instead of shooting the weak points as I imagined, she pulled her "baby" or the M-92 Cain off her back with inhuman speed and pointed it straight at the reaper.

Miranda and I, however chose the safe option and dove behind the nearest cover we could find in a feeble attempt to shield ourselves from the blast. "Shepard we tried that already!" I tried to scream over the roar of the reaper's charging attack. "It doesn't work! Get down!" but Shepard's smile only grew bigger as the Cain glowed in her hands. The reaper threw its head down with an enormous screech of metal and opened its mouth to fire it's blast straight at her.

Then it's head exploded.

The decapitated reaper flung itself back while it's head was reduced to ash in an impressive display of nuclear power. Shepard stood in place with a bemused expression on her face as if she could hardly believe her plan had worked, which was likely.

She slowly lowered the now smoking Cain while a rare and radiant smile overtook her features. A feeling of elation filled my chest and I whooped happily, even Miranda looked happy. The moment was cut short when the reaper, in one final attempt at our lives threw itself forward and crashed right into the metal arena we were standing on.

My yell of triumph turned to a scream of terror when I felt the floor being ripped from my feet. I free fell for what felt like minutes until I crashed into the plates again. I realized I was slipping off the plate, fast, shortly after.

I flipped onto my stomach and clawed at the metal, trying to find something, anything that could stop me. Ice dropped into my stomach as the realization that I was going to die hit me. Then I felt my legs drop off the platform, soon the rest of my body followed as my mouth opened in a silent scream.

I stopped when I felt something grab one of my flailing arms in a tight hold. I blinked and looked up at Shepard, her face screwed up in effort and a fire in her eyes that melted the ice in my stomach instantly.

I grabbed hold of her arm and she hoisted me up onto the platform. Then we were running again, but it felt pointless when the platform started to plummet to the ground. Despite the circumstances i couldn't help but feel annoyed, couldn't anything go right for us? I heard something that sounded suspiciously like a helicopter and found, to my horror, a plate spiraling out of control and heading straight for us!

_CRASH_

* * *

I groaned loudly when I felt a weight that I hadn't even realized was there was lifted off me. I could feel someone lightly pushing my side, but my eyes stayed firmly shut. It wasn't involuntary, I was just tired. Galaxy be damned I've earned five minutes of mid-suicide mission shut eye, right?

Wait... Suicide mission?

Memories rushed back to me as I shot up and was on my feet in a record time. I glanced around and found Miranda already up on her feet and dusting herself off. There was a brief, minuscule moment where I could see a look of relief on Shepard's features. Then it was gone, replaced with her usual cold indifference.

"Commander do you copy? Come on Shepard, don't leave me hanging do you copy?" Joker's voice crackled through our radio.

"I'm here Joker, did the ground team make it?" For anyone who didn't know Shepard it would sound like she didn't care, but I heard the small hint of worry laced into her voice. I smiled a little, If it was when I first met her Shepard couldn't have cared less, but now she had a heart. One covered in a large shield of ice yes, but a heart nonetheless.

Joker's relieved sigh was audible, "All survivors on board commander, we're just waiting for you."

"**Human, you have changed nothing**."

Harbinger's voice boomed all around us, echoing through the entire base. I jumped and frantically tried to find the glowing collector that I thought would be talking to me. Then I remembered that this was the start of Harbinger's epic speech at the end of the game. Then I saw the giant swarm of seekers heading straight for us. _Then_ I realized Shepard and Miranda were already sprinting to the exit. I swore loudly and dashed after them.

"**You're species has the attention of forces infinitely your greater**"

Shepard and Miranda were really far ahead of me,and they were only getting further. I pushed more power into my legs and mentally damning my pathetic stamina to the lowest reaches of hell possible... and then some.

Memories came to me as I ran, I've done things like this before and failed, but this time I wouldn't fail my team. I would not allow myself to fall behind again. I couldn't let myself be responsible for another death.

"**The ones you call reapers are your salvation through destruction**."

Collectors seemed to pour out of every opening, crack, and crevice on the base and open fire on us all. I felt round after round be deflected by my shields and all to quickly the loud electronic beeping signaling my shields were almost out of power assaulted my ears.

Then the Normandy rose from the end of our increasingly short pathway and turned so the airlock faced us. It opened and Joker stepped out with an assault rifle in hand and fired on the collectors.

To my relief all of the collector's fire was now focused on Joker and the Normandy. I was slowing down as all the running was taking its toll. I could barely even think anything besides make it to the Normandy over and over again.

God, I was tired.

I looked up and saw Miranda leap up onto the Normandy and Shepard followed soon after. Now it was only me and I was almost there, but there was something my tired mind was telling me I was forgetting...

Suddenly a huge chunk of metal came down and demolished the edge of the pathway, leaving a massive gap in between me and the Normandy. "Oh, come on!" I managed to yell.

I reached the edge of the pathway and put every bit of energy I had left into my legs, and jumped. I saw the airlock and Shepard glaring at me full force, wordlessly telling me... no, ordering me to make the jump.

I saw Miranda, her eyes wide. I saw a rare moment of fear in her, something that forced me to throw my arms out as far as I could. Joker was wearing a similar expression as Shepard and he was already heading to the edge of the airlock with his hand out in an attempt to catch me.

The airlock grew closer, I was almost there! I reached out my arms to try to catch the edge. Then I felt something solid against my finger tips and I threw my other hand out to try and get a better grip.

Then it was gone, my lifeline and my only hope for survival. The Normandy disappeared from my vision. The squad's horror struck faces were burned into my mind. Then they were gone too, and I was falling with no hope of living all over again. It was then, I found that the rumors that your life flashes before your eyes before you die?

They're true.

* * *

So this is the start of the next SI in the mass effect section!

This wasn't actually how the first chapter was supposed to go but I personally thought the original (the next chapter in this case) was a little too boring for a first chapter. So then this happened.

I hope you enjoyed it and please review. I promise chapters after this will be longer. Thanks for reading!

**THIS IS CURRENTLY BEING WRITTEN WITHOUT A BETA.**


	2. Welcome to Cerberus

Chapter 1

It was the silence that woke me up.

As crazy as that sounds its true. There was no movement, no usual creaks from my house, just silence.

So I opened my eyes and shut them immediately after I looked straight into a big glowing ball of light that nearly burned my eyes. Groaning, I rolled over trying to look anywhere but where the light was.

Then I noticed I wasn't in my bed anymore. I was lying on something hard, and smooth judging how it kept squeaking every time I moved. So, I tried to open my eyes again, this time greeted with-

"Ah I see your finally awake." A calm voice cut through the silence. My reaction wasn't nearly as calm. I screamed at a pitch a little to high for my age, jumped up and slipped on the floor earning me a place right back where I started and an aching tailbone.

I sat up and looked at where I thought the voice had come from but had to look down right as a looked into that damned light. I looked away and blinked several times, trying to will my tired mind into action.

Looking around confirmed my fears that the room I was in was most certainly _not_ my bedroom. Unless my bedroom had been suddenly transformed into a dome of glass in the middle of the night.

The room I was in was made entirely of glass, and it was damn _spotless_. It was as if it had never been used before, or the guy who owned it was the biggest clean freak in the history of all time. Speaking of which,

"Where am I?" I asked aloud, remembering the voice that talked to me earlier. Hearing him respond would prove that I am not imagining things and I am most certainly not talking to myself.

"Seeing as _you_ are the one that appeared into my workspace, unconscious, I might add. I really don't think you should be the one asking questions." The voice, which I realized was male, responded to my relief.

It took a while for my tired mind to process what the voice had said. Then when I did it made me even more confused than before.

"What do you mean? Appeared?" I asked. Was I kidnapped and now this guy was trying to trick me into doing whatever he wants? Or was I being held for ransom? I was just an ordinary guy how much could I be worth?

The man on the other end of the room exhaled exaggeratedly and my nose was suddenly assaulted by a new smell that effectively destroyed the clean smell of before.

This guy was smoking? I never really understood smoking. You know its bad for you even before you try it the first time. It destroys your lungs, teeth, not to mention breath. There's no upside to smoking but besides making you look like an action movie star. Maybe that's why people smoke, to impersonate Sylvester Stallone.

"You know, it's impolite to talk to a person without looking at them." The mysterious man replied, not even trying to answer my question. I would look at this guy if I could but then I would end up staring right at that huge light. Then again, I do want to see if my mental image of an overweight, chain smoking, fat man is actually what this guy looks like.

"I would love to, but your standing behind one of the brightest things I've ever seen in my life. So would you kindly turn it off?" I got another long exhale in response, which irritated me more that anything.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," was his reply. I let out a low growl and turned my head to look at the man. I shielded my eyes with my hand and squinted, trying to see... well, _anything_. After a long minute of staring a big blur I finally saw him.

He had a nice suit I'll give him that.

The man was dressed in a black suit along with a white undershirt and slicked back gray hair. The cigar he was smoking was out of his mouth and he was staring at me with _glowing _blue eyes. The guy seemed to throw off an oppressive atmosphere like it was going out of style and it washed over everything in the room. Strangely enough, that didn't scare me nearly as much as the fact this guy was completely calm.

The man was all but ignoring the giant ball of brightness and was smothering his cigar into the arm of the chair almost robotically, all the while just _looking_. Focusing on nothing but _me_, and it was downright terrifying.

He raised his cigar to his mouth and sucked in, blowing another burst of smoke out of his mouth almost immediately. I coughed lightly as the smoke and the horrible smell got to me. I swatted at the smoke and looked back at the man, his eyebrow was raised and his glowing eyes bore into me.

"Well?" he asked in a bored tone.

"Well what?" I replied halfheartedly, still wary of this guy and his eyes.

"Why are you here?" he said in a tone that someone would use to talk to a preschooler. "Because if you're trying to kill me you're not doing very well." _That _effectively shut my brain down,

"Kill?" I started to say. It was suddenly very hard to talk, "Why would I want to kill you?"

"Money, power, an army, the most resources in the galaxy seconded only by the Shadow broker, a _very_ expensive collection of suits. Take your pick, I've heard them all before." He replied with another puff of smoke. I take back my previous statement, _that_ was what threw me the most.

_Shadow broker_?

Shadow broker, the big, scary, thing right out of my nightmares that if he actually existed was probably listening to this conversation right now? The man in front of me that kidnapped me and was probably going to kill me just made a _Mass Effect_ reference?

I took one sweeping glance around the room I was in and suddenly it clicked, the glass dome, the ball of light, the mysterious man in a suit, this man was impersonating the Illusive Man! I turned to the 'Illusive Man' and stared into his glowing blue eyes. The man in front of me must have been a billionaire to afford to create something like this...

So, I burst out laughing. I laughed until my sides hurt and my throat was raw. I laughed at the man that had taken me here, I laughed at what was happening to me, and the sheer ridiculousness of my situation. Honestly, if there was a way I thought I was going to get killed, this wasn't it.

Was this what it felt like to be insane? I certainly didn't feel insane, but I doubt many insane people would actually admit they're insane. Of coarse this could all be an illusion and I'm actually locked up inside an asylum and giggling to myself. Would that mean that my conscious took the form of the Illusive Man? Well I was a pretty big Mass Effect fan so that wouldn't be all that surprising...

Yeah, I'm insane.

"Are you finished?" a quiet but obviously annoyed voice asked. I went silent as I became acutely aware of the pistol on his hip. I wasn't sure if that was fake or not, but with the money this man obviously had I couldn't be too sure. I stayed silent and glared at him, as if I wasn't cackling madly a few seconds ago. Illusive Man gave a great sigh and blew yet another cloud of smoke at me,

"Yeah," I said after another round of smoke blew past me. "So why am I here?"

Illusive Man raised an eyebrow, "I believe I should be asking you the same question," He said. "When a boy appears in my workspace that no one but myself should be able to enter without _my_ permission, I would want to know how he did it before he... disappears. So the same mistake will not repeat itself." he said without a care in the world. My eyes went wide and a _very_ cold chill went down my spine,

"J-just hold on." I said, barely noticing how much my voice was shaking. "You brought me here! There's no need for me to d-disappear... right?"

"I assure you, I keep a close monitor of all my experiments and projects. None of them involved transporting a child to me." Somewhere deep, deep down, under all the growing panic and insanity anger bubbled inside me. Eighteen was _not_ a child, damn it!

Illusive Man leaned over the edge of his chair and pressed a small button on the underside of the arm, "Miranda, I need you to escort someone out." He said simply. The chair gave no reply, but when he sat back down he somehow gave off an air of satisfaction.

"Miranda?" I questioned while images of a beautiful woman in a cat suit assaulted my mind. "You have someone else in on this too?" Whoever he got to play Miranda in this... whatever it was must have been captured like me to get her into that suit.

"Cerberus has many resources at its disposal." Illusive man said simply. There was a near silent _swish_ and the sound of heels clicking on the glass, which I took as 'Miranda's' entrance. I turned and saw what I was least expecting, a _very_ beautiful woman in Miranda's trademark suit. She didn't even acknowledge me and nearly stepped on me on her way to the Illusive Man,

"Is this it?" She asked in a familiar Australian accent. The same part of me that had been insulted by the Illusive Man's child remark was on the verge of bursting after being called an _it_.

"Take him to one of the interrogation levels, I want to know how he got here. Do whatever you deem necessary once he breaks." Illusive Man said with a vague shooing gesture. My body was stunned into immobility when the word 'interrogation' left his mouth. That did _not_ sound promising in the slightest...

The feeling of Miranda's hand roughly grabbing my shoulder shook my senses back in action. I slapped her hand away and sprinted to the door at the opposite end of the dome. It was large, metal, and had no handle whatsoever. My panic started to overwhelm every sense in my body and I slammed on the door with my fists in a feeble attempt to make it open.

I felt something wrap around my body and suddenly I couldn't move, or feel anything for that matter.

I looked down and saw that the ground was now much further away from my feet than it should have been. A soft blue glow surrounded my body as I flew up, higher and higher.

Biotics.

I recognized them immediately, but that didn't make it any more stupefying. Biotics were fiction, used in the Mass Effect video games and everything else that had to do with them. But the fact that I was floating several feet above the ground kind of crushed that theory.

I tried to fight against the invisible grip on my body, swinging my arms and legs in every direction possible and only managed to turn myself upside down. The grip around me tightened and roughly pulled my upright again.

I looked at Miranda just in time to see her turn to me with a strained look on her face. She walked up to the door and pushed one of the buttons on the keypad beside it and the door slid open. She walked through and made a lazy wave of her hand and pulled me along with her.

As the door edged closer to me I knew deep down that if I was taken out of this room I was dead. Doomed to be tortured for answers that I didn't have and never will. I had to come up with something, and _fast_.

What could I do? If the biotics were doing anything besides leading me to my imminent death they were shoving facts into my face with the subtlety of an army of stampeding elephants. I was in the Mass Effect universe, something I had dismissed as a wild fantasy found in my mind and in stories written online.

If that was true then I had an advantage that nobody else had, information. That was the key to getting out of this and I knew it. The one thing I didn't know was what bit of information to use to get me out of this. I couldn't tell him about the reapers; that would take too long. Maybe bargain for something on the alliance? What did I have on the alliance, though?

While I had been thinking I hadn't realized that I had already passed through the doorway and the sliding doors were closing fast. I saw this just in time and my mind whirred with options. I worried that if he would even hear me with all this noise. Or that could just be my heartbeat in my ears. I screamed _just pick one!_ at myself internally and just as the doors slammed shut I yelled out the only option that made sense at the moment,

"HARPER!" I screamed louder than I had ever before, and the sound carried down the hallway behind me and faded long after the deafening _thunk_ of the door started following it.

Miranda stopped where she was and didn't move a muscle until she turned to me with wide eyes. I don't think she knew what the Illusive Man's name was, and I'm not sure she knows it know. What she has to have figured out is that I just yelled out something I was _not_ supposed to know.

We stayed frozen in place and just stared at the large metal door as if it would start break dancing if we waited long enough. After what seemed like an eternity Miranda cast a _very_ suspicious glance my way and turned to continue to the interrogation room.

There was a small electronic beeping coming from Miranda's ear after a few more steps to the interrogation room. The sound of my heart pumping flooded my ears again, was this where I was saved? Someone was talking to her, I was sure of that, but it sounded garbled to me. I probably wouldn't hear it if I was standing next to her considering the size of her headset... thing.

Miranda dropped her hand from her ear and a large frown appeared on her face. She turned and walked briskly back to the door, pressed a button on the keypad and dropped me back into the room without saying a word.

I got up while trying to sooth the pain that had returned to my backside, which probably didn't score me any points with appearances. I looked up and saw the Illusive Man with his legs uncrossed and his brow furrowed into his eyes, which seemed to glow brighter than they were before.

I suddenly felt a force pressing against my lungs and his eyes seemed to pierce my soul. I took a shaky breath and unsteadily walked to him. There was a small click from the door as it locked behind me. His eyes seemed to be trying to force me back, and I fought away the strong urge to run away because I knew this was the only way to even have a chance of living.

Before I knew what I was going on I was already standing in front of the Illusive Man, shaking so bad it was a miracle that I was still standing. I suddenly became acutely aware of the pistol, that I now knew was real, that he was fingering with his open hand.

"Maybe," Illusive Man began, placing his finger on the trigger of the pistol and leveling his eyes with mine. "The interrogation specialists are a little too tame for what I need." At a speed that I didn't think was possible of someone that was as old as him he pointed the pistol at my forehead.

I took the hint.

I opened my mouth to empty my secrets, related to Mass Effect or not, when my conscious suddenly caught up to my mouth. The Illusive Man was _evil!_ I reminded myself. He was the one who initiated the attack on, who transformed innocent colonists into husks in the reaper war, and one of the main villains of the game! If I told him _anything_ the whole Mass Effect universe was doomed!

On the other hand if I did tell him some specific things about the game, he could interpret my story another way. He could see how his plan ends up and maybe could even switch sides. He could work with Shepard instead of against him... or her. So I decided to compromise,

"Internet." I told him with an even tone.

_Bang_

There was a soft whistle of something going very close to my ear. I stayed completely still, not willing to move even my eyes. Then I slowly turned my head and saw strands of my hair floating down to the ground next to me and a fresh and steaming bullet hole in the door.

The Illusive Man stared at me with his eyebrows slightly raised. He jerked his now steaming gun a bit, daring me to continue. Internally I was fighting with myself again trying to decide what to do. If he killed me he would lose all information he could get out of me and the game would go on business as usual. If I told him all I knew, than I would live but he might find a way to use the info to beat Shepard, and I really didn't want that.

Illusive man righted his gun so it was back to my forehead and his finger tightened around the trigger. In the end, self-preservation won the battle.

"Wait!" I yelled, throwing my hands out in front of me. "I'll tell, I'll tell, just don't shoot me!" His finger loosened from the gun and it was lowered, but he didn't put it away. A deep sense of self-loathing settled into my gut as I realized what I had just done, but there was no turning back now.

"I'm not from here, exactly." I struggled to find the words to explain this without making me look insane to one of the most insane men in Mass Effect. Oh irony... "I'm from a different, uh, universe." Illusive Man's eyes narrowed into slits and he raised the gun again,

"Do I really need to shoot you to get you to tell the truth?" He asked exasperatedly.

"I'm telling the truth!" I tried to yell back, but it came out as a small whine. "Where I come from, everything here is fictional! The room we're sitting in, the sun outside your window, even you _Jack_ Harper!" I am breathing pretty heavily after my small speech, but I still try to find the time to stare into his glowing eyes and give him the best pleading look I can.

Illusive Man didn't react like I thought he would. I thought he might take me down to the interrogation level after all and pass me off as insane; he might have even shot me right then and gotten it over with.

Instead his brow furrowed and he robotically raised his cigar to his mouth. He took an exaggerated drag from it that seemed to go on forever. The only movement I could see coming from him were his eyes that seemed to buzz around in their sockets. Illusive Man was considering the possibility that _maybe_ I was possibly telling the truth, and that was the best I could hope for right now.

Suddenly his piercing blue eyes focused on me and a long stream of smoke blew straight into my face. I didn't flinch or try to beat it away because this time I was too terrified to move.

I don't know how much time passed while he debated with himself, weighing the pros and cons of trusting me. I knew that he had a loaded gun in his hands, which was making a small _click_ when the Illusive Man moved his finger to the trigger, and back again. The tension continued for a few minutes longer before it was disrupted when the Illusive Man leaned forward in his chair,

"One chance." It took me a while to even realize he had spoken, and even longer to think about replying. The Illusive Man saw my confusion and continued, "You tell me everything about this "fiction" and then you _prove_ to me that it's true. Then, I'll let you live." He rested his head on his hands and looked at me expectantly.

So I told him. Even though every bone in my body was telling me not to and every part of my conscious was telling me how many lives I had just sacrificed to save my hide. Telling Illusive Man the truth was, in no uncertain terms, the hardest thing I had ever done, and one of the worst mistakes anybody could have made.

_I'm a coward..._

I told him about the first game, I told him about Saren and how the reapers indoctrinated him. Then I had to explain to him what exactly the reapers were. To the Illusive Man's credit, he took the end of the galaxy in stride, and probably saw it as a Cerberus recruiting opportunity. I could hardly complain, If I had run across a less opportunistic enemy I would have been dead long ago.

When I started to tell him about Shepard and the main reason most people played Mass Effect, he got interested. I told him about how the games shaped to your decisions and how differently each player could experience. He seemed a little disappointed that I didn't know _exactly_ what was going to happen, but that too, he took in stride.

I talked about Feros, Theorem, and Noveria. About how I would always go to Theorem first because I wanted to recruit Liara as soon as possible because I felt bad if she was not there to see her mother fight Saren's indoctrination.

_How many people did I just condemn?_

Then came Vermire, the heart-wrenching mission with an impossible choice. For some reason I had always chosen Kaiden. I picked Ash as an experiment for one of my playthroughs and I think I made the right choice. The fact his voice actor played Carth Onasi, my favorite character from KOTOR, probably helped his chances of survival a bit.

I stopped after Vermire. Whatever small sense of what's right and wrong told me not to tell the Illusive Man about Illos and the Prothean VI. IF anything, I stopped to keep some leverage over the Illusive Man, without my information I was just another body in his way. Illusive Man saw through this however,

"Stopping before the end? Smart." He said with an almost undetectable smirk on his lips. I glanced around the room nervously and wondered what exactly he was going to do to me now? The Illusive Man placed his cigar, which had become much shorter over the time I had been talking, on the arm of his chair and asked a question, "So you always chose Theorem first, right?"

I nodded my head uncertainly. Suddenly the door behind me swished open and Miranda stepped in. She was lugging large futuristic chest on what looked to be a cart behind her. She walked to the center of the dome, dropped the chest off the trolley, and walked away without a word.

Needless to say I was _very_ confused.

With my guilt being effectively pushed to the back of my mine, I turned to the Illusive Man with a raised eyebrow raised and hoping he would explain what just happened. The Illusive Man had somehow teleported a new cigar into his hands in the few seconds I was looking away and was already lighting it. The cigar burned slightly and the Illusive Man stuck it into his mouth and sucked while gesturing at the box vaguely with his free hand.

I really hoped that meant I was supposed to open it, because I was already over at the chest. There was a keypad with a green light at the top so I assumed it was already open. I briefly searched the sides of the chest before realizing I had to hit the _enter_ key on the keypad to open it.

When I opened it I found something so ridiculous I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I grabbed at the offending item and pulled it out of the chest and it unfolded in front of me, confirming my fears.

A jumpsuit was the best way to describe it. It was one solid piece of cloth, or fiber I guess, which covered everything but the head. It was completely white except for a rather large Cerberus logo taking up the right shoulder and the right of the torso. When I turned to him, the Illusive Man did nothing but watch with interest.

_Is this for me?_

I experimented with the suit by stretching it in different places. It was _very_ stretchy and seemed to have padding around in some places. Once my investigation reached the small hole in the top where a head would go I found the interesting part.

The hole was stretchy, and by stretchy I mean that I could fit two different people through the hole if my arm span was long enough and the suit would still have room to spare.

I frowned and then slowly, carefully, I lowered the suit and started to pull it up around myself. First the legs, then the torso, the arms, and finally it was on me. What was the most surprising was the fact that the suit fit me like a glove. I flexed my fingers and every muscle in my body and nothing seemed changed, no extra weight at all.

I dove back in and found more things that seemed to complete the outfit. First was what looked like arm guards, also completely white, they stretched across one side of my whole arm when I compared one of them to my fairly scrawny frame. Suddenly the armguard latched onto my arm and stuck there.

I briefly tried to wrestle it off but I gave up soon after, figuring that it was more convenient than attaching it manually. I held the other arm guard close to my arm and it attached just as seamlessly.

Next in the chest were boots that stretched up to above my knees. They were sadly not magnetic and I had to slip them on like normally and that was just a pain in the ass.

While I was struggling with the boots I thought about why I was even doing this, for all I knew the clothes could strangle me to death the minute I finished putting them on. When the boots were finally on I settled on curiosity.

I found gauntlets after the boots. They were a little big when I first put them on, but they seemed to adjust to my size fairly fast. Maybe they were responding to the suit?

The last thing in the suit was a helmet. The actual helmet went from just above my chin to all the way around my head with a big gap where my face should go. I found a button on the side of the helmet and, curiosity taking control of me once again, I pressed it.

There was a soft whir of machinery and suddenly a faceplate covered the open gap. There was a lot more texture on the front with what looked to be a breather mask covering the mouth and black glass covering the place where the eyes should be. It honestly looked like the Cerberus assault trooper's helmet from Me3 or Shepard's breather helmet, which didn't surprise me considering who was giving this to me. I pulled it over my head and there was a soft _hiss_ when it apparently attached to the neck of the suit.

I looked down at the glass floor to get a good look at myself and when I saw myself I realized that I had been putting on _armor_. I was astonished when I saw that I actually looked intimidating, which had never been a word I'd have used to describe myself.

Also, the armor looked pretty badass. It didn't look clunky because of the lack of a torso. In fact it looked like the skintight armor that you would wear in the first _Mass Effect_. All the little pieces came together to form, what looked like anyway, one solid piece of armor.

"You missed something." The Illusive Man said, causing me to jump in surprise. I frowned at him, not that he could see it anymore anyways, and went to check the chest again.

I found a small disc that barely fit into my palm. I grabbed it and when nothing happened I flipped it around in my hand a few times. The frown returned to my face as I tried to figure out what this was. I started hovering it close to my body and waved it all around the suit to see if it would magnetize like the other parts of the armor.

When it reached my waste I felt a pull from the object and immediately let go of the device. It flew to the center of my waste and attached to it where there would be a belt buckle if the suit had one.

Suddenly a bright blue bubble surrounded me. It was there for a split second, and was gone just as fast. I didn't have much time to see it, but I knew that it was a shield.

"You see those buttons on the side of your arm? Hit the top one." The Illusive Man called out. Under close inspection I found that there were buttons on my arm. I hit the one further up my arm the minute I saw them.

My wrist and hand was enveloped in a bright orange light and I found an Omni-tool suddenly attached to my arm. Without warning something shot out from the top of it and protruded menacingly from my hand. The Omni-blade glowed even brighter that before and made my eyes go wide.

I almost had a geek-out right then and there.

Out of all the additions to Me3 the Omni-blade was not my favorite, but no one could possible deny the thing was just awesome. It could cut through almost anything and could be used to spit fire, or release a huge biotic shockwave.

I swung it experimentally as far from my face and fancy new armor that was possible. The Omni-blade seemed to cut through air the way it moved. I hit the button on my arm again and the Omni-blade disappeared instantly. I moved back to the Illusive Man and I only noticed then that it was much harder to walk than before.

Well at least it wasn't incredibly hot. I stopped in front of the Illusive Man when all the factors added up in my head. Armor, shields, a weapon-

"That is civilian assault armor." The Illusive Man began plainly with another puff of smoke. I noticed a little smugly that I was no longer bothered by the smell with my new helmet. "As a pro-human organization Cerberus has to be prepared for _all_ scenarios. If, for example, the aliens were to turn on the Systems Alliance our forces would be outnumbered and soundly beaten." I frowned at the distrust of the aliens, but I couldn't really talk after what I had done a few minutes before. That thought took my mood for a turn for the worse.

"This armor was designed for people with no previous combat experience to become, at minimum, semi-combat efficient. It increases the raw strength of the wearer as well as the majority of the effects of gun recoil. The armor also had a slightly larger shield than regularly issued armor to increase defense." That just confirmed my worst fears,

"So why are you-" I tried to ask but the Illusive Man cut me off,

"I'm sending you to Theorem." He said. Fear exploded around my body and I grew numb and unable to speak back. He reached for the pistol attached to his waste and effortlessly threw it at me. I fumbled it and it clattered to the floor, it sounded like church bells at a funeral to me. I robotically picked it up off the floor and continued to stare, horrified, at the Illusive Man. I was barely aware that it had expanded into its full size in my hands.

"You will be given a temporary ship and shuttle, along with two of my best operatives," The Illusive Man pressed on. "This mission will be a test run, I want you to rescue this asari before Shepard does, I think your knowledge and the armor will be sufficient enough. If I find out you were lying and this was just a ploy to escape, I will kill you." I found nothing to say to him but thoughts were going around in my head so fast I could barely understand them myself. The most frequent one had to be _WHAT THE HELL!_

_"_I will be the only one who knows what went on in this room today. Your squad will be sent a fake record of your past... successes. I suggest you keep your helmet on to keep the illusion that they are true, your age might cause them not to take you seriously. They will also see a falsified rank and a simplified version of the objective." I hadn't even gotten a chance to open my mouth ever since he started talking,

"Well _Commander_ the only thing left to say is," A smirk grew on his face as he said my fake rank, he probably thought it was irony or something to give me Shepard's rank. Then he said the words that would probably be written on my gravestone when I most likely die on this mission.

"Welcome to Cerberus."

* * *

I now have a new respect for all the authors on this site who publish chapters like this on a weekly basis because this was _hard_ to write! Just a few things to say, first thank you BloodyOrchid for being the first reviewer to this story! Second, I hope this clears up any questions regarding the SI, or at least ones for the first chapter. Third, please review! If it weren't for the second review to this story that came in to motivate me I'm not sure if I would have finished... So theres proof that reviews help! But, honestly reviews aren't the biggest thing and I just hope I've brought a smile to some faces and you enjoy the story. :)


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